A Tasmania team will be the WNBL's ninth team and will join the revitalised league ahead of the 2026-27 season, the league announced on Tuesday.
Following the success of the Tasmania JackJumpers in the NBL, the WNBL has been quick to follow suit and expand into the state for the first time since the Hobart Islanders left the league in 1996.
"Tasmania has definitely proven with the JackJumpers that their community absolutely gets behind basketball," WNBL CEO Jennie Sager told ESPN.
"What they've done with the JackJumpers - every game being a sell-out - is absolutely incredible. In addition to that, the Tasmanian government has been a fantastic supporter of basketball in the state. And the ownership group as well. They've proven they have a strong business plan to run a really strong operation.
"Put all of those puzzle pieces together, combined with the facilities and the venues they have in the state, and it really was a perfect fit."
The new Tasmanian WNBL team will be based out of Hobart, and introduced to the league ahead of the 2026-27 season, along with one more expansion franchise yet to be determined.
The development comes less than 12 months after a consortium composed of the NBL and Wollemi Capital Group acquired a majority interest in the WNBL, which is widely regarded as arguably the highest-quality women's basketball league outside the WNBA.
Among those most ecstatic about the league bringing a team to Tasmania for the first time in almost 30 years is Launceston-native Kathy Foster, an Olympian and three-time WNBL MVP - two as a member of the Islanders - who's seeing in real time the growth of basketball in the island state.
"I've seen with the JackJumpers, how that's really seen basketball boom, especially in Hobart," Foster told ESPN.
"Numbers are off the charts at the moment, in boys and girls, so I'm very excited.
"I think it demonstrates, more than anything else, how much the tide has turned in Tassie, and there's a genuine interest in basketball. My daughters played, and they had no pathway they could see; it was a wasteland.
"Now, with this new WNBL team, they get to see it, they get to see what the best players look like, and they get to see that there are opportunities.
"It's wonderful that they will be able to watch and have those aspirations."
Foster cited her 8-year-old granddaughter, who plays domestic basketball with the Hobart Phoenix. The association has five under-10 girls teams, which highlights the growing popularity in the sport in Tasmania, and why there's a heap of value in a WNBL team being based out of the state.
"You can't be what you can't see," Sager said.
"Basketball has absolutely exploded in Australia as a whole. We have one in five girls, ages five to 14, now playing basketball in this country. think it's really important to keep showing them the clear pathways, and where they can go if they want to keep playing. Something like expansion is a great way to do that."
There will be an alignment between the Tasmanian WNBL team and the JackJumpers, and Sager confirmed that double-headers involving both teams was something the league plans to explore.
"We've seen some great success with double-headers with the Sydney Kings and Sydney Flames, for example," Sager said. "The fans love them, the athletes enjoy them as well, so it's absolutely something we'll look at."
The success of the JackJumpers is something the WNBL will be hoping to emulate, with the NBL team - who entered the league in the 2021-22 season - winning the 2024 championship, while also having sold out 65 straight games.
Those sellouts aren't by accident, according to Foster.
"Scott Roth did a lot of groundwork early," she said. "He achieved something that's been impossible in years gone by: he united all of Tassie. There was no north-south, north-west bias; everyone bought in, and I think the Jackies players do a lot of community work, a lot of clinics, so they get the kids to buy in.
"Before they even went on the court to train, they went out to the major sponsors and they worked a day... and they really made the team part of the community. They also did a great job of making sure they did go up to the north-west coast, and they went to Launceston. They did spend a bit of time out there building those community roots.
"I think Tassie was ready for a new sporting team that they could follow, and the atmosphere at the games sold a lot of non-basketball people to come back."
With Tasmania locked in, the WNBL will now work toward adding a 10th team, with the formal expression of interest process set to open.
It's understood that Brisbane is being eyed as among the frontrunners for future WNBL expansion.
"The talent pool for Australian women's basketball has never been deeper, and we're committed to growing the professional game domestically," WNBL owner Victoria Denholm of the Wollemi Capital Group said.
"We want to provide more local playing opportunities for our elite players and expanding the league is a key way to do that.
"There are incredible people right across the country who feel just as passionate about the growth of the WNBL as we are. The addition of a tenth team is a rare opportunity to join us and build on our vision to create a strong, sustainable league."